Things to do in London this weekend (October 3-4)

London’s art lovers go mad for a bit of French Impressionism, so it’s a little surprising that the capital hasn’t hosted an exhibition on one of its leading figures, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, since the National Gallery’s 2007 show on his landscapes nearly 20 years ago. It’s excellent news, then, that the Trafalgar Square institution will once again be hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the master painter next autumn. Created in partnership with Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Renoir and Love will focus on the most significant and prolific years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s. Opening in October 2026, it will feature several of Renoir’s most iconic works, including  the 1876 painting Bal au Moulin de la Galette, exhibited for the first time ever in the UK. 

Sting’s musical The Last Ship has had a fairly rough sailing of it so far: in the 13 years since it launched in the States it’s been through three iterations with three different writers and three different directors. The one great constant is Gordon Sumner himself: as well as writing the songs, he’s expended a lot of time and money on the project, including a stint performing in the 2014 Broadway incarnation. In this globally touring version he’s fully embraced the role of grizzled shipyard foreman Jackie White. It has a truly awesome start. The hulking full-sized ship’s hull of 59 Studios’ semi-projected set is a stunning sight to behold, and the opener ‘Island of Souls’ is a rare classic Sting song, given a real shot in the arm by clanking industrial shipyard sounds. It charts the beginning of the end of the Wallsend shipyards – where Sting’s father Ernest worked – though the eyes of its workers and the local community. It’s an awesome spectacle and a heartfelt one too.

Rarely has an opening been as thirsted for as the long-awaited new restaurant from Sertaç Dirik – the boy wonder who resuscitated his dad’s Dalston kebab joint with ultra-cheffy, Copenhagen-honed technique. It’s been almost three years since Sertaç left Mangal 2, presumably taking his sweet time to ensure his solo debut was just-so. Named after the menu’s headline act of slow-cooked goat, Kid could easily refer to Sertaç himself; still only 30, but generally accepted as one of the UK’s greatest young chefs. Kid offers a more sensual backdrop, with a charcoal grill as its mission control. Deeply juicy and rudely thick slices of sucuk sausage come with grilled peach. Pide is plump, greased and salted. A flaky borek the size of a baby's head full of beyaz peynir cheese is trad Turkish cuisine in all but girth, but it’s the mini-meat skewers that prove we’re truly playing with the big boys. We finish in the only acceptable way; with a glass of raki and the promise to immediately return.

Every Jane Austen adaptation lives in the shadow of another. This new take, by Blue Jean director Georgia Oakley, does more than enough to start casting shadows of its own. Following the bumpy path to true love are the Dashwood sisters, Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) and Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Oakley’s version is brooding, with wild, romantic landscapes playing a significant role in conveying all that stirs within the Dashwoods. Lots of Andrea Arnold-esque shots of sun-caressed faces, wafting grasses and muddied hems. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles play the sisters as opposite and complementary forces of nature. This Sense and Sensibility is in its element out in the elements, untamed and free. 

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. The line-up offers a plethora of ghostly tours that will take you around crypts, cemeteries, undertakers, execution sites and other eerie locations across the city, alongside talks exploring everything from Victorian child bereavement to anthropodermic leather. Highlights of this year’s programme also include a bat skeleton mounting workshop, a magic shadow show in West Norwood Cemetery, a five hour immersive forensics workshop, a screening of eerie classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari with live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne, and creepy Halloween festival A Danse Macabre. It doesn’t get more gothic than that! 

Playwright and novelist Partrick Hamilton’s interwar trilogy of novels Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky sketch the energetic jazz clubs or bohemian underground bars that beam against the growth of inner-city poverty in London between the 1920s and 1930s. This adaptation by multi-award-winning dramatist Simon Reade sets itself up to thrill. Ella Dawson (Rosalind Lailey) cleverly plays a quiet and empathetic barmaid who pines after Bob. And best of the bunch is the wily, mysterious and devilishly charming Ernest Eccles (Michael Maloney). There are moments of sheer brilliance: magical jazz dancing, moments of intoxicated rage and touching scenes of youthful discontent. It's a must-see for any theatre-goer who likes to be glum with this cast of broke, drunk, city-dwellers who like to spiral and make all the wrong decisions. 

Korean pop culture has won our hearts over the last decade or so, but how much do you know about the country’s history? The British Museum’s new exhibition dedicated to the east Asian country includes sculpture, painting and decorative arts spanning over two millennia from around 300 BC to the present day. The show is a deep dive into Korean creativity, and according to the museum, “presents the most comprehensive chronological survey of Korean visual and material culture seen in Europe for over 40 years”. Look out for National Treasures including ancient gold body ornaments and Buddhist icons, as well as 12th- and 13th-century celadon-glazed stoneware, evocative ink landscapes and contemporary works responding to the turbulence of the 20th century. It’s a collection that’s never been seen in the UK before. 

Painters have been being dazzled by the glorious natural light and sparkling azure sea of the French Riviera for centuries. This autumn, you’ll be able to feel like you’re taking in the sea air on the Côte d’Azur from London, as the Royal Academy brings together artworks depicting the French southern coast from greats including Monet, Braque, Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein. Spanning the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists, Painting the French Riviera will not only transport you to the SAD-beating coastline, but explore how the riviera was inextricably linked to the rise of modern art. 

It’s unusual for the ‘making of’ a classic movie to warrant a cinema release, but Boorman and the Devil is just that good. The Exorcist was a colossal hit back in 1973, and at the time, sequels were just starting to catch on. But even if a follow-up made financial sense, was British director John Boorman, who hated Friedkin’s film, the man to make it? The Heretic, as the film was originally to be known, was an audacious departure from the original film, with some connective tissue (Linda Blair as Regan, Max von Sydow as Father Merrin), but more metaphysical, existential, and science-over-supernatural than demonic horror. It was also, as everyone else put it, a disaster. Here, the autopsy is conducted with precision and wit, gathering surviving cast and crew, critics and filmmakers to lay out in withering detail everything that went wrong on what appeared to be a cursed production. It’s one hell of a story.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning English artist and stage designer Es Devlin gets her first UK museum show this autumn. The Design Museum’s landmark retrospective will delve into the stories behind the London-based designer’s 30-year practice encompassing everything from kinetic stage sculptures to monumental art installations. Developed in close collaboration with Devlin – who has worked on everything from the Olympic opening ceremony to the Superbowl half-time show – it will feature rare maquettes, sketches, annotated texts and process materials, as well as new large scale installations conceived especially for the exhibition. 

Bloomsbury has got a formidable reputation for artsy goings on, with bohemian artists and writers making it their stamping ground a century ago. But this neighbourhood's relationship with creativity isn’t just in the past – it’s right here in the present too, as is more than evident with the Bloomsbury Festival, a haven of music, theatre, talks, walks and much more. The festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026, with a month-long edition featuring 150+ events at more than 40 venues around WC1, under the theme of ‘Create and Celebrate’. This week, look out for fascinating walking tours including a Trailblazers of Bloomsbury tour (Fri Oct 2), a behind-the-scenes tour of Cockpit Studios (Fri Oct 2), a Dickens-themed musical walk (Sat Oct 3). You can even put your newfound knowledge to good use at a Bloomsbury-themed quiz night (Sun Oct 4). 

In his latest paintings, Pakistan-born, New York-based artist Salman Toor explores the struggle and desire for belonging, both culturally and emotionally. Bringing together 19 of the artist’s paintings, some of which have never been seen in Britain before, this is Toor’s first solo exhibition in Europe and will be full of work deeply rooted in his personal experiences, as well as inspired by an admiration for the Old Masters, especially in Baroque and 18th-century painting. 

For one glorious weekend, Chelsea Physic Garden is waiving its usual admission fees for a special get-together for plant-lovers of all ages. Part of Chelsea History Festival, this open weekend is full of chances to learn how apothecaries and herbalists used plants in centuries gone by. Historical characters will share tales of how they've used leafy ingredients in ointments and healing tinctures. There'll also be lots of opportunities to get hands on with nature, including pond-dipping, storytelling and craft activities throughout the day.

Fans of a tasteful fruit bowl or an artfully-placed key dish, rejoice. Ceramics in the City is back once again to inspire the masses with a range of ceramic styles, techniques, colours, and textures on display. The free-entry east London market hosts more than 40 independent artists in the impressive surroundings of the Museum of the Home. Spruce up your own gaff with some lovely objets purchased directly from the makers, or just wander through the sculptures and saucers for some creative inspiration before heading to the Creation Zone, where children and families can have a go at working with clay themselves at free drop-in sessions. 

Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery will be filled with apples, hats, pipes and clouds this autumn as it hosts a free exhibition on Belgian surrealist René Magritte. A first major London exhibition of Magritte’s subverside artwork in more than 30 years, it will feature works on paper, sculptures and photography from Magritte’s four-decade-long career, many of which have been loaned by museums and private collectors. These include ‘La Lampe Philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp)’, made shortly before the International Surrealist Exhibition that took place in London in 1936, and last displayed in a landmark Magritte exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 20 years ago. Gagosian’s exhibtiion will also explore Magritte’s legacy via works created specifically for the exhibition by several contemporary artists, including painters Harold Ancart, Allison Katz and Dana Schutz. 

New-York based artist Autumn Knight constructs installations and performances inspired by her background in theatre and psychology. In I Can’t Complain, her first major presentation in the UK, she explores the act of complaining and the ways in which it can be cathartic, frustrating and politically empowering. At the centre of the show is an audio installation that collates coversations about everyday irritations, exposing how minor things like food quality can be indicative of deeper inequalities. On select days (October 1,12 and 15), Knight will be in the space for solo performances that delve further into the concept of complaining, asking questions about who gets to complain? And how are those complaints received? 

In his genius 1985 documentary Sherman’s March, director Ross McElwee follows in the footsteps of a Civil War general’s infamous advance through the Confederacy. Forty years on, the stunning Remake lays bare McElwee’s own battles, the least of which is a mooted Hollywood remake of his breakthrough doc. A tear-stained, deeply personal and utterly singular documentary, it tells the story of the young son he lost to a Fentanyl overdose, captured via home video footage taken across three decades. ‘It’s been seven years since you died,’ he says in the voiceover, ‘and I still miss you every day’. Throat meet lump. Lovelorn, thoughtful and deeply moving, this is a film you’ll really want to talk about.

Some of London’s most illustrious institutions – the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Chelsea and Chelsea Physic Garden – join forces for the eighth edition of this history bonanza. A line-up of 100 events explores history from every angle, with author talks, guided walks, and family-friendly fun. 2026's edition is curated by BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, who'll talk about his six decades reporting on global events. There'll also be a staging of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Oct 1) at Chelsea Old Church, close to where it was first performed in 1688, an opportunity to go behind the scenes at Royal Court Theatre, free living history tours of Chelsea Physic Garden, and walking tours exploring the area’s spies, artists, queer history and rock-and-roll past.

The London Latino Film Festival makes its grand debut this week. Sixty feature-length and short films hailing from the likes of Puerto Rico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic will be shown in venues across the city, beginning with an opening night at the Barbican. There’s more to the festival than the screenings, though. Latino stars will make appearances to discuss their work – including Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, Argentine actor Óscar Martínez and Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría – and there’ll be a rare exhibition of hand-printed Cuban film posters at the Eclectic Gallery and filmmaking masterclasses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Back to the movies, the programme includes Lucia Garibaldi’s award-winning 2025 feature Un Futuro Brillante; A Procura de Martina by Márcia Faria, a work about a women with Alzheimer’s who has been searching for her grandson for 30 years and Kim Anno’s ¡Quba!, which chronicles the LGBTQ+ rights movement in Cuba leading up to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2022. 

South London’s World Heart Beat Music Gardens is cementing its credentials as a hidden gem venue in the capital, with its inaugural Silk Road Music Festival. Across three months, the programme will span genres across continents, cultures and centuries with sets from internationally acclaimed artists all celebrating the rich artistic traditions that flourished along the historic Silk Road. The festival opens with a Sufi Qawwali Night – a traditional, devotional musical gathering – (Oct 3) performed by the Khan Brothers with Ustad Haji Ameer Khan. Other highlights include a fusion of Bengali song and London jazz with Sahana Bajpaie (Oct 4). 

Festival of the Girl is on a mission to banish gender stereotypes. These generalised views and perceptions can kick in from a very early age, which is why the festival aims to start correcting this early by inviting girls aged 7 to 11 (and their families) to get stuck into hands-on workshops and unforgettable activities, all led by inspiring female role models. On the bill are talks from art historian and best-selling author Katy Hessel, NHS doctor and Olympic weightlifter Deborah Alawode and survival expert and bushcraft instructor Naomi Allsworth. There’ll be activity stands from The Florence Nightingale Museum, The Medical Women's Federation, and engineering workshops from Girls Can Build and zen meditation lesson from WeMeditate. 

Serpentine North will host a major solo exhibition by Indian filmmaker Amar Kanwar. The New Delhi-based artist is best known for his body of lyrical films, which move between documentary, travelogue and visual essay while exploring the legacies of decolonisation on the Indian subcontinent, incorporating the themes of violence, power, labour, indigenous rights, memory and censorship.

Twentieth-century American playwright Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy, from 1937, is a fine play with a somewhat on-the-nose consideration of art versus violence as embodied by protagonist Joe Bonaparte, a sensitive Italian-American violinist who throws himself into the world of boxing, with ultimately tragic results. This is a worthwhile revival: a crack cast meeting a bold vision that seeks to do more than just squeeze Golden Boy into standard naturalist tragedy shapes. Yates’ string-drenched production makes a virtue of Odets’ symbolism, and a tip-top cast sees it home. A historically important play, but this revival makes it feel thoroughly alive.

English artist Jenkin Van Zyl is known for his immersive installations that cast you into unsettling scenarios. Enclosure is set within a decaying facility where tourists could temporarily inhabit the lives of others. He’s created a whole world where people could renew or terminate their doubles and sees Mercy, a starlet who lent her likeness to the programme, arrive to terminate her contract, where the process begins to collapse. The work asks pertinent questions about the systems we create for ourselves and the human need for self-preservation. It’s a large-scale work where visitors move through ‘facility’, past fairground signage, holograms, inflatable cocoons and decaying ephemera. 

Once again, Regent’s Park will be taken over by sculptures this autumn to coincide with the Frieze art fair coming to London. While tickets to the fair can cost up to £250 and are usually reserved for the collectors, dealers and creators of the art world, Frieze Sculpture is totally free to visit and gives a chance to the proles to get a peak at some contemporary artworks in the open air. Fatoş Üstek will curate the exhibition for the fourth year in a row. This year, instead of viewing the sculptures in isolation, the display is curated as a web of interconnected objects, linked together with materials, stories and communities. Highlights will include Angel Otero’s threshold-like doorway descending beneath the grass, and Tarini Sethi’s intricate stainless-steel screens depicting utopian scenes. 

This musical version of Thelma & Louise has many things going for it, notably some thrilling songs from alt-country legend Neko Case, a great cast led by Amy Lennox and Rachel Turner, and some sparking dialogue from Callie Khouri, screenwriter of the classic 1991 Ridley Scott feminist road movie. The more we’re left alone with just the leads, the better it is: Tucker is very good as the sensible one with the traumatic past (Thelma); Amy Lennox is borderline sensational as the married one who loosens up, hits the bottle and gets laid on the road (Louise). And it gets extra good during the wilder, more concert-like sections at the start of each half. It’s a feelgood-ish comedy about female friendship (with some bold feminist undertones). 

Nominated for Best Newcomer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Awards, Freddie Meredith’s Need a Light? is a by all accounts delightful hour of sketch comedy in which Meredith plays a nerdy, wannabe hip loser who spends 60 endearing minutes trying to start conversations with randoms in the smoking area of a club.

Returning for its fourth edition, the UK’s only festival celebrating cinema from Hong Kong arrives in cinemas around London this September, with 15 titles curated around the theme of ‘Diaspora As Agency’. We like the sound of Palimpsest: The Story of a Name 隱蹟之書：重寫自我’ an essayistic narrative in which director Mary Stephen searches for the meaning behind her family’s adoption of its Western surname. This opening night screening will be paired with an in-person Q&A with Stephen herself to kick off a rich programme of UK premieres, classic restorations and workshops.

Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery will be filled with apples, hats, pipes and clouds this autumn as it hosts a free exhibition on Belgian surrealist René Magritte. A first major London exhibition of Magritte’s subverside artwork in more than 30 years, it will feature works on paper, sculptures and photography from Magritte’s four-decade-long career, many of which have been loaned by museums and private collectors. These include ‘La Lampe Philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp)’, made shortly before the International Surrealist Exhibition that took place in London in 1936, and last displayed in a landmark Magritte exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 20 years ago. Gagosian’s exhibtiion will also explore Magritte’s legacy via works created specifically for the exhibition by several contemporary artists, including painters Harold Ancart, Allison Katz and Dana Schutz. 

Charge the steins! You don’t have to travel all the way to Germany for a lederhosen-clad knees-up this Oktoberfest – and you don’t even have to wait until October. Munich’s world-famous beer festival is very much on in London and the celebrations begin in September with big steins of beer, platters of excessively long wurst and loud oompah bands blowing brass like they don’t give a schnitzel. Oktoberfest began over 200 years ago, as a mammoth wedding party for a Bavarian prince and princess. It turned out that beer, bratwurst and all-round silliness were a match made in heaven, so now it's an annual excuse for everyone to cut loose as autumn approaches. Whether you’re after a traditional take on the event or drag queen-led partying, authentic Bavarian beers or east London craft IPAs, you can find the perfect Oktoberfest for you right here in London. You're sure to get a warm willkommen at one of these London Oktoberfest events.